An Impression Management View Of Chinese Complaining

Complaining is a common speech act in our daily life. Linguistic studies on complaining focus on complaining modes and strategies, as well as various social variables determining the practice of complaining strategies; while, studies on reasons for complaining are mainly carried out in the psychological field. Kowalski (1996) suggests that complaining are not always for venting dissatisfaction emotions. Under some circumstances, complaining is regulated by people's impression management (self-presentational) motivation. Driven by this motivation, people attempt to create and convey their desired impressions to others. But the impression management study of complaining in China is scarce. Therefore, with reference to the study made by Kowalski, this thesis attempts to make a research on reasons for complaining from the impression management perspective.The two-component impression management model proposed by Leary and Kowalski in 1990 provides a general theoretical framework for the present study. But in view of the interdisciplinary nature of our study, the thesis adopts a simplified model which involves only the contents of impression motivation and impression construction without considering various variables determining these two components. To exactly speak, impression motivation focuses on studying what impression management motives drive people to complain; and impression construction studies what all kinds of impressions that people attempt to convey to others through complaining and how. This research is a qualitative study, and the data are collected from our daily conversations and TV plays.The results of the present study show that complaining in Chinese context is indeed regulated by the impression motivation. The detailed impression motives include two aspects: (1) the motives for obtaining desired outcomes and avoiding undesired outcomes. Some are social outcomes in interpersonal nature, such as seeking approval, liking, solidarity, help and assistance, sympathy and comfort, attention and concern, outlet for discussing positive events; or avoiding aversive responsibilities, being criticized or blamed. Others are material outcomes, such as getting a new writing case, ameliorating the dormitory condition, or avoiding a deducted salary. (2) self-esteem maintenance and/or face-saving. Driven by these impression motives, people attempt to create various kinds of desired impressions through complaining. These impressions mainly include the impressions conveying individuals' personal attributes, such as similarity (conforming to others' opinion), being knowledgeable, superior, and so on.The present study exhibits a unique side of complaining and makes people understand more comprehensively the reasons for complaining in Chinese context. At the same time, it should be noted that impression motivation, under some conditions, will restrain oneself from complaining because of the negative impression that complaining may convey to others. Thus, in our daily life, complaining is a regulator of interpersonal relationship and helpful for people to realize various interpersonal goals.